Blog Tour, Scavenger Hunt & Review: Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller

If you’re coming from the blog tour, welcome! Below you’ll find the next excerpt of Big Sky Mountain and the link to tomorrow’s piece as well. If this is your
first stop on
the tour, you’ll need to start from the beginning to get the whole
excerpt. Go here, to see the full list of blog tour stops. 

Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller

Harlequin

July 2012

Format: e-book, 279 pages

First line: A fine sweat broke out between Hutch Carmody’s shoulders and his gut warned that he was fixing to stumble straight into the teeth of a screeching buzz saw.

Summary from Goodreads: The “First Lady of the
West,” #1 New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller, brings
you to Parable, Montana-where love awaits.

With his rugged good
looks, vast wealth and family name, hell-raiser Hutch Carmody is still
the golden boy of Parable, Montana. But he’s done some growing up-making
peace with his illegitimate half brother and inheriting half of Whisper
Creek Ranch, which should have been all his. These days, Hutch knows
there are some things money can’t buy: like the heart of loving,
ladylike divorcée Kendra Shepherd.

Kendra’s quiet mansion
reminds her of what she wants most-a devoted husband and the
pitter-patter of little feet. She can’t get Hutch Carmody out of her
mind. But a rough-and-tumble cowboy like Hutch, coming home for family
dinner? Seems crazy! Then again, crazier dreams have become reality
under the vast Montana sky.

My thoughts: This is the second book in Linda Lael Miller’s Swoon Worthy Cowboy series and boy-oh-boy does she know how to write about cowboys that make you swoon!!! 

Big Sky Mountain is Hutch and Kendra’s story and like Joslyn and Slade in Big Sky Country, Hutch and Kendra have a complicated past. Once a couple way back when, their relationship fell
apart and Kendra married another man. With Kendra now divorced and raising her ex-husband’s 4 year old daughter Madison, the
attraction is back, sparking even hotter than before. Will Hutch and
Kendra forgive the mistakes of the past and find love again? Will Hutch be able to love Madison as if she were his own?

Big
Sky Mountain is an understated romance between two ordinary people who
need to come to terms with their issues and emotional baggage before
they can have a healthy relationship. It is a tale about second chance love. I loved Hutch and Kendra’s story and I also loved how we get to see the characters from the first book, too. I have to admit that I wasn’t much of a fan of Hutch’s in the first book – he came across as somewhat of a jerk at times, but there are so many scenes where we really see a vulnerable side of him here in Big Sky Mountain. When Madison starts calling Hutch ‘cowboy man’ part of me melted. Watching the scenes where he interacts with her are heartwarming and there are many times when Madison herself steals the show! 

I am looking forward to reading the third book in this series, due out early next year. Linda Lael Miller has given some hints as to who the book might feature and I am anxious to read their story!

Scavenger Hunt/Excerpt:

 

And getting sucked into Hutch’s orbit would be the stupidest thing I could possibly do.”

“Would it?” Joslyn asked, raising one delicate eyebrow as she waited for a reply.

“Of course it would,”
Kendra whispered fiercely. “The man broke my heart into a gazillion
pieces, remember? And now he’s dumped some poor woman virtually at the
altar, which only goes to prove he hasn’t changed!”

“Did it ever occur to
you,” Joslyn inquired, unruffled, “that Hutch might have ‘dumped’ Brylee
for the simple reason that she’s not you?”

            
“No,” Kendra said firmly, shaken by the mere possibility, “that did
not occur to me. He did it because he can’t commit to anything or
anyone long-term, because Whisper Creek Ranch is all he really cares
about in this world—because he’s a heartless, womanizing bastard.”

Tomorrow’s stop: Book Binge

I received a complimentary copy of Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller from Kate at Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc.